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Can we always find order in systems that are disordered? If so, just how large does a system have to be to contain a certain amount of order? In this video Imre Leader of the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics at the University of Cambridge gives an equation free introduction to a fascinating area of maths called Ramsey theory.

This talk was originally given to an audience of Year 12 A-level maths students (aged 16-17) in June this year and formed part of a mathematics enrichment day organised by the Millennium Mathematics Project with a special focus on encouraging the development of mathematical thinking.

"This talk will mostly be stories ... I want to tell you about Albert Einstein, and about his theory of relativity — what it is, why he was thinking about it and also about some of the very latest developments that have happened just this year."

This video contains a talk by one of our favourite physicists, David Tong at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge. It was originally given to an audience of Year 12 A-level maths students (aged 16-17) in June this year and formed part of a mathematics enrichment day organised by the Millennium Mathematics Project with a special focus on encouraging the development of mathematical thinking.

You might be surprised at what our image of the week depicts – commuting times! It shows the areas accessible by public transport from Cambridge, leaving at 9.00am on a weekday morning. The coloured circles depict the travel time in bands of 10 minutes. Thank you to those kind souls travelling for over an hour for giving us so many beautiful colours! You can find out more about the image in our article Travel time maps – transforming our view of transport.

Mr and Mrs Huntrodd were both born on the same day — 19 September 1600. That's quite a coincidence isn't it? (See here just how much of a coincidence this is.) What's even more of a coincidence is that they both died, within 5 hours of each other, on the same day too, which was… drum roll please… 19 September 1680! This seems very surprising. So surprising that even the very hard to surprise Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter OBE, Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk and friend of Plus, was surprised. So surprised that he took this photo and is now throwing a party to celebrate this unlikely event with party, this Friday 19 September.

We have several images of the week this week! And they all come from the beautiful design for the new maths gallery that will open at the Science Museum in London in 2016. The first is the inspiration that Zaha Hadid Architects used for the layout of the gallery. It's the turbulence field of an aircraft which captures how the air moves around it. This is mathematically described by the Navier Stokes equations, which apply in many different situations, from modelling the weather to understanding how blood flows. (You can read more about the Navier Stokes equations in Universal pictures and turbulence in Understanding turbulence.)

A top view of the turbulence field around the Handley Page aircraft, one of the main exhibits in the new maths gallery (Image courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects)

The Handley Page Gugnunc in flight

The plane that will hang in the centre of the gallery is a Handley Page Gugnuncs. This experimental plane was designed for the Guggenheim Safe Aircraft competition in 1929 which aimed to find planes that could fly safely at slow speeds and with short takeoffs. The research beind the plane profoundly advanced aviation technology and understanding at the very beginnings of civilian air travel. (You can read two brilliant articles from the 1930s about the competition and the aircraft itself.)

Behind the plane are three minimal surfaces (surfaces with
the smallest possible area that satisfy some constraints) that are
based on the shapes of the vortices in the turbulence created behind
the plane in flight. The equation defining these

The design or the Handley Page exhibit in the new maths gallery

is a complicated looking combination of familiar sine functions that is governed by six different parameters. By varying the values of these parameters, the , the surface bends and twists producing a whole family of different shapes. Some of these will be created will be created in physical form to provide the support display cases used throughout the galleries. You can play with these surfaces yourself or just watch
their creation in the video below.

It is thrilling to see such a striking, beautiful and mathematical
design for the gallery. But of course the real strength will be the
exhibits themselves. These will span 400 years of science and
mathematics with objects ranging from hand-held mathematical
instruments from the renaissance to modern technology. We all know
that maths is
the language of the universe and we can't wait to see what stories
we'll find in the
new maths gallery when it opens in 2016.

Later this month you get a chance to enjoy beautiful music twice as much as normal: not only will you hear the wonderful voices of the Adventist Vocal Ensemble, you will also also be helping to empower disadvantaged children in Africa through the power of maths education.

The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences Schools Enrichment Centre (AIMSSEC) founded in 2003, is a not-for-profit organisation empowering teachers to make an important difference to the educational opportunities of many thousands of South African children, and also to train other teachers. Experts from universities across the world, work as unpaid volunteers, with the African staff, to give professional development courses for mathematics teachers, subject advisers and field trainers working in disadvantaged rural and township communities, improving their subject knowledge and teaching skills and providing resources. AIMSSEC's work extends to other African countries and continues to grow and expand in the interest of sustainable improvement of education in Africa.

The concert, Rise Up for Africa, will raise funds for bursaries for some of the many hundreds of teachers in disadvantaged communities who are keen to attend the courses, yet have no funding to do so. AIMSSEC have raised enough funds for 7 teachers to attend the courses so far and their objective is that the Rise Up for Africa Benefit Concert will enable another 20 teachers to attend by raising £10,000.

Rise Up for Africa is at 7pm Saturday 27 September at All Saints Haggerston Church Hackney, London E8 4EP. You can find out more information and book your tickets here.